Yesterday's Promise (41 page)

“It's no wonder you haven't heard from Camilla,” Heyden explained. “She's ill, but Sir Julien could have answered. I'm not surprised by his silence, though. He's always known you were a van Buren and deliberately hid the fact to keep you from inheriting a good deal in diamond shares through Katie.”

“I know that now. In fact, Lord Brewster has taken care of all that at Sir Julien's wishes.”

He looked at her. “Has he? And none too soon. He's been fair, I hope?”

She merely looked at him, unwilling to reveal her personal affairs to him until she knew and trusted him far more than she did now.

“The van Burens have been robbed of what rightfully belongs to us all,” he said. “Sir Julien cheated us. All the van Burens have a right to diamond shares through Carl, your grandfather.

“Lord Brewster insists the van Burens sold out to Sir Julien after Grandfather Carl was killed in the mine explosion. All, that is, except what he left to Katie. Julien will say what suits him if it serves his purpose. If anything, he and the others in the diamond company stole Carl's rights and managed to hide it…”

Evy wondered if it was true. She had no liking for Sir Julien. “It is obvious he kept me from knowing the truth all these years.” When she looked back to the financial struggles she and Aunt Grace endured through the years after Uncle Edmund's death, it was clear Sir Julien had deprived her.

“There is still the matter of the Black Diamond, isn't there? With your mother yet blamed for its disappearance.”

“Katie didn't steal it. Not even Rogan thinks so. He said so before he left.”

“Did he?” Heyden looked thoughtful. “That doesn't surprise me either. I told you the last time I saw you in London that I'd been looking into its disappearance, as I have for years. Even as a boy, I'd heard about its theft from members of the van Buren family. Inga was Katie's maid at Cape House, and she was even present when you were born. She helped Katie escape, knew about her plans, and helped her contact Henry Chantry when he was in Capetown to see Sir Julien.” Heyden walked over to her. “Well, Inga was a van Buren.

“Even Katie didn't know Inga was related. Inga kept it a secret because she feared Julien didn't want a possible heir caring for Katie after your grandfather Carl was killed in the mine. Inga was Carl's cousin. And I am Inga's son,” he finished quietly.

She studied his face for clues. Did he think this was important to her? Evy knew little about Inga's relationship with Katie during the time her mother had managed to escape from Sir Julien's house on the night the diamond was stolen, so she accepted the news mildly that Heyden was Inga's son.

“Inga told me about that night Katie ran away with Henry Chantry,” Heyden went on. He looked at her. “Inga left Katie's bedroom door unlocked when Sir Julien demanded it be locked from the outside.”

Evy leaned forward. “Julien locked my mother indoors?”

“Inga told me that Julien suspected Katie would run off and try to find you.”

Evy felt indignant, yet grieved, too, for what her mother had suffered.

“Inga learned where you were and told Katie.”

“Was it Inga who told you about Jendaya?”

“Yes, my mother had smuggled a message to Henry Chantry that Katie wanted to meet him at the stables that night.”

Evy had heard before about the Christian Zulu woman Jendaya who had rescued her during the attack at Rorke's Drift, but each time she heard the story, it seemed new and warmed her heart. She wished she could meet Jendaya to thank her and also to hear from her own lips all that had transpired.

“You told me in London two years ago you'd met Jendaya,” she reminded him.

“I did. I found her in Zululand. By then the war with Cetshwayo was over. Zululand had become a British protectorate, so it was safe to go there. Katie didn't bring the Black Diamond to Rorke's Drift, and Henry didn't have it when he was at Rookswood. I think Jendaya knows more than she's willing to tell me. She's quite old now. She was living at Jakob's mission station on the Zambezi River. I spoke to her again and was close to getting more information, but the next day she left the station without letting me know. She can't be trusted.”

“Jendaya? But—”

He shrugged off the incredulity in her voice. “My dear cousin, I know these tribal savages. Their character is such that it's questionable whether the missionaries should even attempt to convert them.”

“I can hardly believe my ears! Not bring the knowledge of Christ's forgiveness to the Africans? Why, it's repulsive to even say such a thing.”

“You'll get on well with Cousin Jakob. He feels as strongly as you do.”

“A great many of us feel this way. Who wouldn't wish to bring light into darkness?”

Heyden shook his golden head. “Never mind about that. I'm sorry I mentioned it. But getting back to Jendaya, I'm certain she knows more about the Black Diamond than she'll tell me. It has something to do with the Zulu and her brother, Dumaka. He was an induna among his Zulu people before the Zulu war.”

He turned to her. “Evy, if she'll tell anyone where the diamond is, it's you. Think of what this would mean. You'll clear Katie's name for good, and you can meet Jakob van Buren, a man you would warm to. He's everything you'd approve of, and very zealous about his mission.
He works with some of the lepers at his private medical mission. Not only that, but I've told him about you, and he longs to meet Katie's daughter.”

He suddenly caught up her hand, his wintry blue eyes warming. “Evy, will you come with me back to South Africa to meet Cousin Jakob? And talk to Jendaya? Everything depends on your cooperation. And there are other van Burens, too. My family lives in the Transvaal. They're farmers and they want to meet you.”

Evy's heart began to beat faster. She had
family
, and one of them was Dr. Jakob, a medical missionary? Her heart seemed to take wings.
I must see Jakob…and Jendaya
.

“When I last spoke with Jendaya, she told me Rogan Chantry came to see her and that he wanted the Black Diamond.”

Her breath paused. “Rogan—he was at Jakob's mission station?”

“Yes. So now you should know why he hasn't been in touch with you all this time. There's little else on his mind but the gold discovery on Henry Chantry's old map and the missing Black Diamond. He'll do anything it takes to get it from her. He's not told Sir Julien, but that doesn't surprise me. He has his base camp near Fort Salisbury now. He certainly doesn't need the diamond. It's just greed on his part. They say he's already struck gold and intends to lay claim to even more on the Zambezi River.”

So Rogan wanted the Black Diamond too! And that was the reason he hadn't contacted her? She looked across the parlor at Heyden. “How did Rogan learn Jendaya may know where it is?”

“The same way I did, asking questions, putting two and two together. He was after the Black Diamond when I first arrived at Rookswood to see him. Why do you think he threatened me? Wanted me gone from London? At that time we both mistakenly believed the diamond could be hidden in Rookswood. He pretended it was only the map that interested him. But there again, he lied. He's after Jendaya now. He'll force her to tell him where it is. She's an old woman now and wouldn't be able to put up much resistance.”

Evy felt the tension in her face. “Has Jendaya told any of this to Sir Julien, or Jakob at the mission station?”

“No. She refuses to talk. She's afraid. But when I told her about you, Cousin Evy, it seemed as if new life entered her old body. ‘I must see Miss Katie's daughter,' she told me. She repeated this to me several times until she persuaded me to bring you to South Africa to see her before she dies.”

Heyden took both her hands into his. His earnest gaze searched hers. “Say you'll come, Evy. Come to the Boer Republic to meet some of Katie's relatives. As I said, Jakob also has a longing to meet you. He's a good man. You'll like him. He's like an uncle. And there's Inga, my mother. She can tell you all sorts of stories about Katie, and there's Inga's granddaughter, Katrina. They'd more than welcome you to Katie's old home.”

Evy was overwhelmed by all this news of relatives longing to meet her. “I was never told any of this.”

“Both Rogan and Sir Julien knew of us in the Transvaal all along, but they've deliberately kept you away. Now Rogan wants to get the Black Diamond for his own selfish plans, which also include Lady Patricia Bancroft. I'm afraid, Evy, you've been played for little but a pawn. We both have.”

Her back stiffened at the thought of being used. New thoughts trampled through her mind that only added to her anger.

“Rogan knows Katie and Henry didn't have the diamond when they left Cape House that night. He's spoken to Julien about it too. But now it serves his purposes for the old tale about Katie and Henry and the Kimberly diamond to survive, obviously to keep others from finding it. And of course he doesn't want you there talking with Jendaya.”

She turned away, her emotions churning.

“It's time you came to South Africa, Cousin Evy. Please say you'll come back with me.”

Her hand went to her forehead. “I must think about all this, Heyden. But if what you say is true, I will want to find out for myself. Not just for Katie's reputation, but to discover the truth about my father,
too.” She looked across the room at him. The lamplight cast dancing shadows on the wall behind him.

“Do you know who my father was?”

He was very still, watching her thoughtfully. The troubled frown slowly vanished from his brow. His face was smooth and blank.

“Jakob can tell you for sure. And that's another reason for you to come to South Africa.”

“If Jakob thinks he knows, then it's likely he also told you.”

He walked over to her. “Yes. He said it was Henry Chantry.”

She stared at him a long moment while everything she had dreamed about and prayed for suddenly turned into ashes. It seemed as though the storm crooning around the house swept those ashes to the four winds.

“Then…I am a Chantry?”

He nodded in silence.

She gripped the sides of the chair. “I see…”

“Cousin Evy, I fear my words have affected you. I'm deeply sorry for that. You must still care for Rogan Chantry.”

She blinked rapidly, keeping back the stinging tears. She said quickly, firmly, “No—not any longer. It's over now.”

He nodded gravely. The wind moaned and continued to hurl the rain against the windowpane. A horrid sensation ran over her. That wind, that rain, that silence, and unease—it reminded her of that dreadful afternoon at the cottage in Grimston Way.

An expression of wonder crossed his face. Then he looked away and threw his cigarette into the fireplace. “It was so unfair of Sir Julien not to tell you about Henry all these years,” he said angrily. “He knew you were involved with the Chantry children, Rogan included. I suppose that's what we should expect from that sort of ruthless fellow.”

Evy calmed her heart. She'd been foolish to react in such a guarded fashion toward Heyden. It was from the memory of the frightening ordeal, of course. Sometimes it came rushing back without warning. She prayed that she would eventually get over it.

She said in a low deliberate voice, “Someone murdered Henry Chantry thinking he had the Black Diamond. That could not have been Rogan. He was a mere boy at the time. Though I've no doubt that he would have wanted it. Someone else those many years ago did it, and whoever it was must be brought to justice.”

Heyden folded his hands, fingers intertwined, and brought them to his chin, his eyes fixed upon her as she sat in the wing-backed chair near her crutches.

He nodded slowly. “I'm relieved you think your father was murdered. I feared to add that burden to those I've already placed upon you. Yes, I've always thought someone took Henry's life. I wouldn't be so quick to eliminate anyone, though, if I were you, Cousin.”

“What do you mean? Surely you don't think Rogan—?”

He drew in a deep breath, let his hands fall to his sides, and shrugged. “It's been known to happen before. A boy who can and does commit a dreadful crime. He was in Rookswood that night. He had opportunity and cause.”

Every fiber of her body and spirit resisted his implied accusation.

“No, impossible,” she said, shaking her head.

“Not so impossible as you might think. He wanted both the map—and the diamond. Rogan's always been fixated on that map from boyhood, hasn't he?”

She knew that was true, yet she couldn't…wouldn't accept the worst.

“I see this is too much for you. Well, that's understandable. We won't discuss it any further. Except to say that I do think Rogan is capable of doing whatever it takes to accomplish his goals. He's been that way since childhood. And I wouldn't simply discount him.”

“That also goes for everyone in the extended family. None of us can be excluded.”

“You're right. Anyone old enough at the time could have done it, perhaps even Lord Brewster—or his wife, Lady Camilla. She's a little unbalanced, you know.”

She nodded. “So Sir Julien claims.”

“Not only Julien. Everyone who knows her says so. She's kept in her room at Cape House most of the time now.”

Evy reluctantly recalled what her aunt Grace had said about Camilla's delicate mental balance. Was it possible she'd become unstable only after murdering Henry?

“But what reason would Lady Camilla have?”

Heyden did not flinch. “Didn't anyone ever tell you it was Henry Chantry she wanted to marry, and not Anthony Brewster? Oh yes, after Henry's first wife died of African fever on the Zambezi, Lady Camilla had hoped her father would arrange a marriage with Henry. He had been attentive to her in the past, you see, and she loved him. Again, it was Sir Julien Bley who managed to have Camilla's father give her in marriage to his nephew Anthony Brewster.”